COLLEGE HOCKEY

COLLEGE HOCKEY; Freshman May Be Answer To Maine's Title Question

By WILLIAM N. WALLACE

Published: March 31, 1993

When Paul Kariya came to Maine last summer as a freshman hockey player from North Vancouver, British Columbia, he understood perfectly why he was there.

The goal for the hockey zealots of Maine was a national championship, one that has eluded the Black Bears since the team became a Division I power in 1987. That crown had become a crusade for the driving, ambitious coach, Shawn Walsh.

"We freshmen knew all about what had happened," Kariya said recently. "We knew about the goal."

That goal is now two games away, beginning with a semifinal contest against Michigan tomorrow at the National Collegiate Athletic Association's hockey tournament in the Bradley Center at Milwaukee. Boston University and the defending champion, Lake Superior State, will meet in the other game.

In between the semifinal games and the championship on Saturday, the winner of the Hobey Baker Award, which honors college hockey's player of the year, will be announced. It is very likely to be Kariya. First in Scoring Average

Walsh says Kariya is the best college player in history, or at least among the top two or three. The statistics support the claim. Kariya's average of 2.6 points per game is the highest in N.C.A.A. history.

And he is only 18 years old.

Kariya, who is expected to be among the first players chosen in the National Hockey League's draft in June, is vague about his future because, he says, he is having such a good time this season. He is expected to spend next season with the Canadian Olympic team and he says he wants to return to Maine.

That could happen if the N.H.L. team that drafts him holds back any money offer and is content to have Kariya play another season or two for Maine. Respect for American college hockey has replaced disdain in N.H.L. circles recently. Similar in Size to Gretzky

Kariya, who is 5 feet 11 inches and 175 pounds, has been compared to Wayne Gretzy physically, a comparison that Kariya finds flattering. Gretzky has long been a role model for this black-haired youth with the heavy-lidded eyes that see everything on the ice.

Playing left wing on a line with Jim Montgomery at center and Cal Ingraham at right wing, Kariya has had almost three times as many assists as goals, 71 to 25.

His no-look passes are uncanny, says Montgomery, the senior captain. Kariya's skating is so fluid he never seems to be in a tangle with another player and he has been in the penalty box only six times, for 12 minutes.

His father, Tetsuhiko Kariya, was a longtime member of the Canadian National Rugby team and the son was on skates at age four. Kariya left home at 16 to join a junior team, the Penticton Panthers, based 150 miles east of Vancouver.

He was a sensation there for two seasons and was the Canadian Junior A player of the year in 1992 after scoring 46 goals and 86 assists in 40 games. Eliminated by Michigan State

The Black Bears last season won 32 games and the Hockey East championship but were eliminated from the N.C.A.A. tournament in a regional quarterfinal game by Michigan State.

Nine players from that team departed including senior Scott Pellerin, the winner of the Baker award.

This season was advertised as a rebuilding year for Maine. But Kariya and the Ferraro twins, Chris and Peter, from Sound Beach, L.I., changed that thinking. The Ferraros, who played Junior A hockey in the United States last season, were both drafted by the Rangers last June, Peter on the first round and Chris on the fourth.

These three players were the only freshmen to make the varsity. The result so far has been 40 victories, 1 defeat to Boston University, whom the Black Bears defeated three other times, and 2 ties. But Maine still remains two victories short of their goal.